Gender and ICTs

The issue of content production and representativeness is important within African news production. In her presentation at the 2007 Digital Citizen Indaba conference in Grahamstown on Sunday, the chairperson of LinuxChix in South Africa, Anna Badimo, highlighted the need for new approaches in African news production. APC Africa-Women co-coordinator Sylvie Niombo explained that content in the mainstream media ignores lived realities of women.

Media and ICT Caucus, APNGO Forum] – The Media and ICT Caucus wish to state from the outset our reaffirmation of the commitments of the BPFA and the Cairo Programme of Action, and their Plus 5 documents.

The following is a report from the Asia-Pacific Women’s Watch onsite report of the B+10 Intergovernmental High Level Meeting organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission of Asia Pacific. Daily reports from the HLM will be available through the APWW-mailing list, and will also be made available from the APNGO-Forum website at http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org

Women’s infocom groups form Media and ICT Caucus, reaffirm Beijing Platform

The following is a report from the Asia-Pacific Women’s Watch onsite report of the B+10 Intergovernmental High Level Meeting organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission of Asia Pacific. Daily reports from the HLM will be available through the APWW-mailing list, and will also be made available from the APNGO-Forum website at http://ap-ngo-forum.isiswomen.org

Commissioned by UNDP, this report represents a joint effort of UNDP and UNIFEM to deepen knowledge about gender dimensions within ICT for Development (ICTD) and to strengthen integration of gender within the work of UNDP and others working to promote ICTD in the region. The report highlights the need for increased action to address imbalances between women’s and men’s access to and participation in ICTs in the CEE/CIS region. It also emphasizes the powerful potential of ICTs as a vehicle for advancing gender equality.

This report is the first of its kind to compile a substantial inventory of gender equality projects and resources for the information society in the CEE/CIS region, including references to other resources, relevant websites and contacts. Equally important, regional specificities are addressed. Similarities and differences for the region in terms of the gender agenda ­ both historic and current ­ are discussed in the context of ICTD approaches.

UNDP and UNIFEM encourage regional and national ICT policymakers, ICT and development specialists, as well as gender equality experts and advocates, to draw on this report as a practical tool and resource. It is hoped that the examples of good practice showcased in the report will inspire greater action and innovation across the region, which will further contribute to bridging the gender digital divide in the CEE/CIS.

The publication is an output of the joined initiative of UNDP Bratislava Regional Center and UNIFEM Central and Eastern Europe in cooperation with APC Women’s Networking Support Programme. The APC WNSP hopes this report will help initiate a discussion about women, gender, and equal opportunities of women and men in relation to ICTs. The APC WNSP is working towards mainstreaming the ICT issues into the work of women’s organisations in the CEE countries and into ongoing processes such as Beijing+10 and WSIS.

Bridging the Gender Digital Divide is now available in English for download.

Achievements: The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 is generally regarded as a watershed in understanding of information technology as a powerful tool that women could use for mobilization, information exchange, and empowerment. Beijing was also the first international conference at which substantive issues relating to women, information and communication technology were debated, albeit somewhat on the margins of the core agenda.

In the first week of June, Rio de Janeiro saw a major gathering of gender and ICT advocates from all around the world. Over 40 activists, researchers, members of non-profits, donor agencies, and other institutions, many of whom have been working in gender and ICT for more than a decade, arrived in Brazil invited by the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) to discuss gender issues in the context of ICT policy processes and practice.

The APC women’s programme (WNSP) is gearing up for the exciting culmination of two years of trials of GEM, a gender evaluation methodology for ICT and internet initiatives, in Brazil in early June, as part of a seven-day forum on “Networking for Change and Empowerment”. Representatives from community telecentres, women’s networking initiatives, and community-building and training programmes that participated as pilot testers of GEM from Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America will meet face-to-face to debate results and share insights. But that’s not all the forum offers.